


Smooth Criminal

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-09-11
Packaged: 2019-07-10 21:31:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15957947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: A day at the beach goes a little sour. Willow belongs to willownorthbook, Daine belongs to HellishSam, Isabella belongs to SpaceUnicornDot, and Roo belongs to fieldingfreja.





	Smooth Criminal

In the past few weeks alone, Willow had felt worse than she'd ever felt before. Even worse than her breakup with her high school girlfriend. Though, she guessed, the magical happenings with Pandoria and Katja and Anne and even Ydris would make anyone feel bad. Even if they didn't have Pandorian scarring that actually glowed in certain places of Jorvik. Which would be cool, if it didn't burn like fire when it happened. She didn't know how the Jorvik Wilds withstood it, though maybe it didn't hurt for them when they changed colour. And Evergray... well, he didn't smell of any illicit substances, but his own body odour probably overpowered that.

Willow's musings on Evergray's body odour and possible substance abuse, however, were interrupted by her front door opening. Willow was about to yell at Roo about intruding, but the snarl on her face faded completely when she saw just who it was at the front door. Instead, it was her girlfriend, an uncharacteristic frown marring her features.

"Oh," said Willow, taking her feet off the coffee table and shoving her empty cookie bag to the side, dusting the crumbs from her jeans. "Hey, Alex."

"Did you eat an entire bag of cookies by yourself again?" asked Alex, still frowning as she picked up the empty bag.

"Yes?" said Willow. Alex sighed, closing her eyes.

"That's it," said Alex, determination in her voice.

"What?" asked Willow, feeling a little scared. Alex's eyes snapped open, blazing with determination, and Willow flinched. "Should I be scared?"

"Only if you're afraid of getting a little sand in your shoes," said Alex. "Get your horse and-" She sniffed the air. "Take a shower and change your clothes, I'll air your house out while I wait."

"What are you, my mother?" Willow muttered, though she began to move towards her bedroom to get some clean clothing.

"Well, someone has to drag you out of your depressive slump, and I've had plenty of practice with that thanks to my mama," said Alex, setting her hands on her hips. "And before you start worrying, I don't mind doing this at all." Her expression changed for a moment, becoming more caring. "I love you, Wills, I don't want to see you destroy yourself."

"I know," said Willow, her lower lip wobbling at the thought of just how much Alex loved her. "I thought getting to the bottom of my nightmares would fix it."

"Emotional scarring can take a long time to heal," said Alex. "But we’re all here for you. I promise." Willow gave her a shaky smile and finally grabbed her clothes and headed to the bathroom before she could start crying in front of her girlfriend. Again.

Half an hour later, a red-eyed Willow emerged from the bathroom, her hair still wet but her skin scrubbed so much that it glowed a healthy, human pink. She smelled a good deal better, too, and she wasn't wearing the same clothes that she'd been wearing all week. Her house had undergone a little transformation, too, the windows and curtains were open, spilling light into the rooms (Gracie was batting at some tassels that hung from one of the curtains), and it even looked like Alex had vacuumed and swept.

"I was going to wash the dishes and do laundry too but you were in the shower," said Alex, shrugging. "But everything else is done."

"You didn't have to do that," said Willow, the words coming automatically to her lips. Alex smiled, shaking her head.

"Yeah, I did," said Alex. "Now you can just go relax with your friends without needing to worry about your house."

"I didn't worry about it anyway," said Willow. Except when Alex was over. Though, sometimes, cleaning could be cathartic. It hadn't worked lately, though, she'd just been too tired to do anything other than sit on the couch with Jorflix while gorging herself on cookies. Nightmares could do that to a person. Even if they were gone now thanks to a sleep talisman given to her by Linda, she couldn’t shake the old fear of going to sleep.

"Willow," said Alex, sounding like this wasn't the first time she'd said it. Willow shook her head.

"Sorry," said Willow. "I spaced out for a second. But I'm here now, I promise."

"Your friends are waiting for you at the Fort Pinta beach, go grab your horse and have fun with them," said Alex, smiling. "If nothing else, you might relax a little."

"Yeah, might," said Willow absently. "But I'll go. Aren't you coming?"

"Nah," said Alex, shaking her head. "I don't wanna intrude and make everyone else the third wheel. Besides, this is a friendly hangout for you. No Soul Rider business, just normal stuff. Or as normal as it gets around here." Willow gave a laugh that she barely felt.

But Willow did leave, taking her lovely Jade for once. She could have taken her orb, of course, the name that she had affectionately given the latest breed of fat Jorvik Starter Ponies, but today, Jade felt like a good horse to take.

When Willow arrived at the beach, she found her usual group of friends already sitting on folding chairs around tables that were set out with food and drinks on them. Oddly enough, the tables were spread with picnic blankets. She raised an eyebrow as she led Jade over to a grove of trees where the other horses had been tied for the day.

"What kind of a picnic is this?" asked Willow as she walked over to take a seat beside Roo, who poured her a drink that she was pretty sure was mostly non-alcoholic.

"Well, you can't have a picnic on the beach, you'd get sand everywhere," said Isabella. "In the food, in the drinks." She shuddered.

"In body parts," Daine chipped in. Willow nodded.

"Good idea," said Willow, sipping at her drink. Yep, there was the unmistakable tang of alcohol. "So is the point of this to just sit around and recover with company or to recover by getting drunk?"

"Getting drunk alone is just depressing," said Roo. "It's more fun with friends."

"It's the middle of the day," said Willow.

"Does time even still exist anymore?" asked Isabella. She suddenly sounded like all of the drinks had hit her at once, and Willow had to wonder just how long she'd been here.

"How long have you guys been waiting for me?" asked Willow.

"We weren't waiting for you," said Daine. Isabella tried to kick him in the leg, but her chair wobbled and she made a strange yelping sound. Willow burst into laughter, glad that she hadn't been drinking. Roo, unfortunately, had, and sprayed drink all over the delicious-looking food. Willow mourned it, reaching for it with a pathetic whining noise.

"Rude!" Isabella declared, righting her chair and swiping a napkin from the table. Liquid dripped from it. "Roo! Did you have to ejaculate over everything?" As Roo choked mid-swallow, Willow rolled her eyes and thumped her friend on the back. Drinking, it seemed, was actually considerably more dangerous with friends.

"Damn," said Daine, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie. "I haven't laughed that hard in ages." Roo continued to cough and hack, her face turning red as she struggled to get her breath back. She gasped, Willow continuing to smack her on the back.

"Alright now?" asked Willow once Roo seemed to have stopped choking so much. Roo nodded, her breath shaky.

"You guys are dangerous," said Roo, her voice hoarse as she took another swig. Willow rolled her eyes with a smirk. Only Roo could continue drinking the thing that had nearly drowned her.

"Annie, are you okay?" asked Daine, almost giggling. It should have been good. It should have been very good to see Daine laughing after everything with Ydris. But instead, Willow suddenly saw red. Or, rather, pink.

"No!" Willow snapped, standing up and grabbing Daine's chair from under him. Daine fell to the ground, surprised, but scrambled up to his feet. "No, you can't say that, you don't ever say that!"

"Help~" Daine yelped, beginning to run away from the enraged girl. Willow chased him, though, wielding the chair above her head. As she passed the championship area, though, a hand gripped her forearm tightly, halting her.

"No, no, no, don't do that," said Alex, her voice attempting to sound soothing despite the fear in her eyes.

"You should be mad, too!" said Willow, pointing in Daine's direction with the chair. Daine looked very small and very far away. "He made a joke about Anne!"

"Are you sure?" asked Alex. Willow might be better than she was, but Alex knew better than anyone that it was easy to be sensitive around certain subjects.

"Yes!" said Willow.

"Tell me what happened," said Alex.

"I dunno, we were just joking around and Dot made a weird noise and then Daine said that," said Willow, her anger muddling her memory.

"And are you sure he meant that?" asked Alex. "Are you sure he meant Anne? He might've been referring to a Michael Jackson song, he makes some weird noises."

"Yeah," said Willow, her anger momentarily doused. "Maybe he just meant that."

"No, I didn't," said Daine, grinning. "I was referencing our Annie's plight." Willow growled, raising the chair again.

"Get him," said Alex, letting her go.

"Isabella, help!" Daine yelled as he ran for his life for the second time that day.

"Oh no, I'm not bailing you out of this one," said Isabella, standing with her arms crossed outside the wreck of the picnic site. "You're on your own."

Daine screamed and Willow gave a war cry as she chased him down the beach, wielding the chair like some kind of obscure weapon.

"Take your chair with you!" Willow yelled, finally giving up and just throwing it at him. It gave her only a small amount of satisfaction, however, to see that the chair merely grazed his leg. And yet, Daine's leg buckled under him and he fell into the sand. Willow panted, still glaring at him.

"Good shot," said Alex, arriving beside her. Willow turned to her again, her anger sated now that Daine had been taken out (temporarily, he was probably just play-acting so he could sneak away when she wasn't looking).

"What are you doing here, anyway?" asked Willow, hoping that didn't sound rude.

"Well, I was going to just let it be you and your friends," said Alex. "But then I thought, well, you have only just recovered. And maybe I was feeling a bit lonely."

"The pile of dishes and laundry changed your mind, huh?" asked Willow, smirking knowingly at her.

"We'll work on it together later," said Alex. Willow chuckled.

"She's a maniac!" Daine cried as he ran up off the beach, headed towards the disco, no doubt to report her.

The disco, however, was not guarded by a tap-dancing security guard and his little pup. Daine was confused when he got there. No wonder the fate of Jorvik rested on the shoulders of a bunch of teens, the authorities were useless.

"Hello?" Daine called, deciding to just head into the disco. He hoped that Jojo wasn't still lurking around here somewhere, ready to jump out and give him a heart attack by yelling at him.

"Shh," a voice came from a shadowy corner. Daine frowned, turning towards the source of the noise. To his surprise, he saw the security guard sitting down in one of the egg chairs.

"There you are!" said Daine. "Where were you, there's a maniac on the loose and Elin's useless because some idiot kids decided to feed themselves to the sharks and-"

"I said SHHHH," the security guard repeated, somehow yelling despite whispering. "Rambo is sleeping." As Daine's eyes adjusted, he could just make out the shape of a black and tan puppy curled up asleep against the blue cotton of the guard's uniform.

"A serious crime of assault has just taken place and you won't get up because it'll wake your puppy," said Daine, his voice deadpan.

"Of course you wouldn't understand, you're not a fur father," said the security guard. Daine blinked at him.

Jorvik was weird, that was the only truth, or untruth, that mattered.


End file.
